Hearts Of Oak SC

Hearts Of Oak SC is a Ghanaian football club which will play in Ghana's highest domestic football division, the Glo Premier League, during the 2008/09 season. Also known by their nickname, Phobia, Hearts Of Oak SC are based in Accra, and play their home games at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in central Accra.

Accra Hearts Of Oak SC (red/blue strip) attack against their bitter rivals, Asante Kotoko FC of Kumasi (white strip), in their fixture at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra.

(March 2008)

 Accra Hearts Of Oak SC are the current league title-holders, having won the 2008/09 Glo Premier League. This brings their league championship tally to a total of twenty one titles, making their record with bitter rivals, Asante Kotoko FC, a dead-heat.

 At the high point of the 2008/09 Glo Premier League season, Accra Hearts Of Oak SC (white/red/yellow/blue strip) face Asante Kotoko FC away at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi. In one of their best performances of the season, Accra Hearts Of Oak SC won 1-2, helping them to amass an eventual 14 point lead, before having this lead eroded away to eventually win the league season by just three points.

(February 2009)

Clinching the 2008/09 championship was against all the predictions of the media experts at the commencement of the season. After playing out a disastrous 2007/08 season, where Hearts Of Oak SC finished mid-table, the pundits expected little more. However, by the halfway point of the season, Hearts Of Oak SC defied all predictions, gaining a massive 14 point lead, which was accrued by a series of impressive wins, including an outstanding performance against Asante Kotoko FC at Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.

However, by the second-to-last fixture, Hearts Of Oak SC had surrendered this massive advantage, and going winless for nine matches. Accra Hearts Of Oak SC required a draw or win to secure the title. However, their draw against cross-town rivals, Accra Great Olympics was enough to secure the title, and were handed the Glo Premier League trophy the following week during their final fixture against Sporting St Mirren FC, where they also managed to reverse their form with a win. This saw Accra Hearts Of Oak SC finish the 2008/09 with 52 league points, three clear of Asante Kotoko FC on 49 points.

The end of the season was not without some panic, however, and the continuing lapses of form saw Nii Noi Thompson take over as manager from Serbian Kosta Papic, but amazingly, Thompson's first taste of success bore the club a championship title.

Since the commencement of the Ghana's premier club competition (currently known due to sponsorship arrangements as the Glo Premier League), Hearts Of Oak SC have won nineteen domestic titles, including the inaugural season of the post-independence Division One in 1956, with their most recent title coming in the 2006/07 league season.

 The Accra Hearts Of Oak SC players pose for a team phtotograph during the away leg of the 2000 Confederation Of African Football (CAF) final, held against Esperance Sportive de Tunis in South Africa, where they came from a goal down at the half to win 1-2.

(Kindly donated by Accra Hearts Of Oak SC)

By far the greatest achievement of Hearts Of Oak SC was winning the Confederation Of African Football (CAF) Champions League in 2000, when they defeated Espérance ST of Tunisia by a total aggregate of 2-5 in the two playoffs for the title. The club has also won the Ghana FA Cup on nine occasions.

 The oldest existing club in Ghana football, and arguably the most-widely supported, Hearts Of Oak SC started as a group formed in 1910 to challenge 'The Invincibles', the first of the Accra-based clubs. They practiced with a tennis ball to begin with, until Ackom Duncan, a young man who had seen football being played in Saltpond, arrived in Accra, and began training the group, and becoming their manager & captain. The first Hearts Of Oak SC game was played on the 11th of November, 1911.

A rare first-ever photograph of Accra Hearts Of Oak SC dating from 1917. Known later as the 'Pioneers' of Accra Hearts Of Oak SC, all the players in the photograph were part of the innaugural team from 1911, and are seen here sporting their new rainbow coloured strip, which was imported from England. The player in the back left is Simon Okraku, who was the club captain at the time.

(Kindly supplied by Accra Hearts Of Oak SC)

By 1914, several other clubs had appeared in Accra - Excelsior, Osu Pioneers, Perserverance, Asiatics, and with word spreading of successful English clubs, Accra even had it's own Aston Villa & Wolverhampton Wanderers !

During this time, Hearts Of Oak SC had found a patron, auctioneer Hanson Sackey, and had even developed an administrative structure. This excellent organization saw the club gain on and off field success that other Accra clubs could not match. Indeed, in one notable case, a new club formed by ex-patriot Sierra Leoneans called The Kings played Hearts Of Oak SC, and received such a drubbing that at half time they decided to focus their attentions on attacking opposition players rather than the ball.

In 1917, Mr T.F. Bruce-Tagoe commissioned the design for Hearts Of Oak SC's new colours - red, yellow, & blue. Jerseys were ordered from Manchester, England, and a match was arranged with their great rivals, The Invincibles, at London Park in the James Town district. While Hearts Of Oak SC won the match 1-0, more interest seemed to come on account of the new jerseys, and even some of The Invincibles players apparently switched camps in order to try out for the honour of wearing the colours.

During this time, an early club legend was found. On the eve of a match against an emerging club rival, Accra Standfast, word spread around Accra that this club had somehow obtained some miracle where any Hearts Of Oak SC player attempting to score a goal against Accra Standfast would go blind. Indeed, many first team players did not take part in the game, but a young schoolboy, Okoe Tetteh, stepped up for Hearts Of Oak SC to score the only two goals of the match. He did not go blind, and went on to play for the club until the early thirties.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to bring a professional competiton to Accra. Sir Gordon Guggisberg, arguably the best colonial governor in the history of The Gold Coast, donated the Guggisberg Shield in 1922, and the winners would thus become the official champions of the city. Hearts Of Oak SC dominated the first competition, and went on to win six of the next twelve titles.

 The players & members of Accra Hearts Of Oak SC pose after their famous victory against Accra Standfast in 1927. The gentleman wearing the bow-tie seated in the centre of the picture is A.G. Heward-Mills, who won a car in a wager from the 1-0 result. Left of him is Hesse Odamtem, the Chairman of the Accra Football Association at the time. The trophy in the foreground is the Guggisberg Shield.

(Kindly donated by Accra Hearts Of Oak SC)

Outside of the Guggisberg Shield competition, it was the order of the day to arrange friendlies between the rival Accra clubs, although perhaps the term 'friendly match' is not appropriate - often there were scuffles and blows between the most fanatical supporters, and heavy wagers also took place. In 1927, one such friendly match was arranged between Accra Hearts Of Oak SC, and their then-rivals, Accra Standfast, a fixture which always drew massive interest. Heavy betting took place between the two clubs, and one distinguished resident, horse owner A.G. Heward-Mills, even won a car in the betting in Accra Hearts Of Oak SC's 1-0 victory !

In the early 1930s, most of the clubs split with the Accra Football Association, electing to replace it with the Accra Amateur Football Association, a move piloted by Mr Richard Akwei, who was later the controversial head of the Ghana Amateur Football Association. The assets & liabilities were transferred to the new association, and when Accra Standfast, loyal to the former association, refused to hand over the Guggisberg Shield, they were taken to court & ordered to hand over the trophy.

Accra Hearts Of Oak SC went on to dominate the newly-formed Accra Football Association, winning six of the twelve seasons that the association ran.

 A team photograph for the Accra football club, Hearts Of Oak SC, in 1941. Joe Ankrah, later the Chairman of the National Liberation Council, and Head-Of-State of Ghana, appears in the photograph in the front row, third from the right.

(Kindly donated by Accra Hearts Of Oak SC)

In the late 1930s, a new crop of outstanding players had entered the Accra Hearts Of Oak SC stables. One particularly gifted winger was recruited from a team known as the 'Destroyers', and had even played in a cup tie against Accra Hearts Of Oak SC. He later defected, distressed at the way in which the 'Destroyers' were managed & operated. He was known as Joe Ankrah, and would continue to play for Accra Hearts Of Oak SC while serving as a Warrant Officer in the Royal West African Frontier Force, based in the Records Office in Accra, right through the 1940s. Later, he would progress through the ranks of the post-independence Ghana Army to become more universally-known as Lieutenant-General Joseph A. Ankrah (MC), chairman of the National Liberation Council, and Ghana's Head Of State from 1966-1969.

During this period, other associations had sprung up. The Sekondi-Takoradi Football Association developed a trophy called the Spitfire Trophy, and a tournament was held as a wartime charity event in which the champions of the various Gold Coast associations would compete. Accra Hearts Of Oak SC went on to win the trophy, defeating Takoradi XI Wise FC (now Sekondi XI Wise FC), in a tournament where Ankrah was one of the best performing players.

In another wartime fundraiser, Accra Hearts Of Oak SC fielded a huge contingent of nine players, who played in a victorious match between the Accra XI versus the Kumasi XI. Played at Jackson Park in Kumasi, the match was attended by Governor Sir Arnold Hudson, and in a first for the country, the match commentary was broadcast live by radio.

However, during this period, the administrative centre of the Gold Coast was centred in Cape Coast, and with Takoradi now a key base of the Royal Air Force. Accra Hearts Of Oak SC accepted an invitation to play a Royal Air Force team in Takoradi in late 1940, and were smashed in a 5-1 scoreline. The club fared little better against the Cape Coast Dwarfs, losing in a 2-1 friendly match for a prize of then-handsome sum of N¢20.00.

The board of Accra Hearts Of Oak SC were very upset by this loss, and when an invitation came from Obuasi to stage a rematch, both teams accepted. Accra Hearts Of Oak SC crushed Cape Coast Dwarfs by a 6-0 margin, however, the lorry transporting the team back to Accra crashed, resulting in several players suffering several serious injuries.

During the mid-to-late 1940s, the club went through some upheavals, where new members to the administration clashed with the older generation of administrators. Some players resigned, and it was only thanks to a number of determined & patient board members that the club saw off an almost-disastrous period of it's existence.

By the arrival of the 1950s, the club had seen off it's administrative troubles, and had also emerged financially secure. In 1950, Accra Hearts Of Oak SC played their old local rivals, Accra Steadfast, at Owusu Memorial Park. Accra Steadfast's subsequent defeat culminated in the eventual demise of the club, and their forming into a new team, Accra Great Olympics FC.